How Is A Dump Truck Crashing Into My Parked Car My Fault?

Somewhere in upstate New York, a mysterious dump truck rolled down a hill, hitting Jennifer’s partner’s vehicle and one other car. While it’s wonderful that no one was hurt, now the incident has turned into a consumer issue. The truck owner’s insurance company doesn’t want to accept fault for the incident, leaving Jennifer’s partner to file a claim against his own meager insurance. How, she wonders, can they fight back?

My partners Subaru was parked in a lot when a dump truck came barreling down a hill and slammed into two parked cars, squashing them. Since it was a dump truck, it was filled with dirt and rocks, many which flew through the air and landed in my partners car, thrusting it 12 feet forward, breaking his back window, dashboard window, denting his bumper and hatch, and filling his car with 2 feet of dirt.

The dump trucks insurance company is trying to claim “no fault” and does not want to pay for my partners rental car, or the storage of his vehicle while it is in transition and has not told us how much they are going to give him for his car. We don’t know what to do legal wise, should we get a lawyer at this point or is there anything else we can do in order to make the company pay? He does not have comprehensive/full coverage on his car because it was an older vehicle that he has had for 4 years. We think this may be why they are giving us a hard time, but, we don’t think it is fair.

This story raises a few more questions. Was someone driving the truck, or did it roll down a hill spontaneously, unoccupied? Has Jennifer’s partner been in contact with the owner of the other car that was hit? How did the company deal with them? What does the police report for the incident say?

Still, we’ll throw this open to wisdom of the Consumerist Commentariat Hive Mind. What should Jennifer’s partner do?